Unbowed and Unafraid!

I was able to spend a day with my father a few days before Christmas.  At the sweet age of 93 he is in good mind and health.  We talked a bit about my art.  He thinks it is pretty cool, but he shakes his head when I tell him about my gunpowder and fuse process.

A asked him if he had read any poetry lately.  He tapped his head and said, "No, it's all up here."

Without missing a beat, he recited Invictus by William Ernest Henley.

Yesterday I finished a couple of new color groove artworks and named them, Unbowed and Unafraid, after being inspired by his words.

Here is the poem:

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Unbowed

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate,

I am the captain of my soul.

Boom!

Stick Vega is the American Gunpowder Artist, former CEO, and author of LESS KILLING. Stick currently lives and creates explosive pop art at The Blast Factory in Madison, Wisconsin. Not limited to one medium, he works in gunpowder drawings and paintings, photography, digital art and writing. Follow Stick on Facebook and/or Twitter.